Motorists trespass in the bus lane, forcing a bus into traffic during the city's peak rush hour in Jakarta, on November 13, 2015.

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Photos:Jakarta's traffic jam

Vehicles sit in traffic on a main road during the morning rush hour in Jakarta, on May 19, 2016.

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Photos:Jakarta's traffic jam

Motorists in a traffic jam on a main road in Jakarta on June 21, 2016.

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Photos:Jakarta's traffic jam

Motorists suffer through a traffic jam in Jakarta on February 4, 2016 near a construction site. Indonesia lacks a mass-transport system, forcing its increasingly affluent 260 million people to rely heavily on private transport.

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Photos:Jakarta's traffic jam

Go-Jek, a popular motorbike-hailing app, is putting a new spin on smartphone taxi services in the Indonesian capital. Thousands of motorcyclists in distinctive green jackets and helmets offer commuters an escape from Jakarta's notorious traffic gridlock.

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Photos:Jakarta's traffic jam

Drivers log onto the Go-Jek app, which has seen 25 million downloads since its launch in 2015.

One of Asia's fastest growing start-ups, Go-Jek has amassed a huge following.The app quickly evolved from its original taxi-hailing mission into a one-stop shop for on-demand services,such as ordering take-away meals, couriers and even masseuses.

Only one way to go

Harvard Business School graduate Makarim realized that ojeks could have huge potential,if only they were coordinated by technology.

Nadiem Makarim, founder of Go-Jek.

"(In Jakarta), there's only one real way of getting from A to B in the fastest way, and that's by two wheelers," he tells Talk Asia. "The problem was that this market of two wheelers was extremely inefficient."

Go-Jek, much like other car-hailing apps, harnesses GPS technology to connectusers with available nearby drivers.

The power of mobile

Go-Jek launched as a websitein 2011, butdidn't see serious momentum until 2015 when the company unleashed its app.

"Indonesia is leading the pack in the mobile revolution," says Makarim. "I believe in five to seven years time almost everybody will have a smartphone."

To date, the app has been downloaded 25 million times, and there are more than 240,000 Go-Jek drivers across Indonesia.

That's not to say there haven't been setbacks. Earlier this year, the Indonesian government threatened to prohibit app-based transport after violent protests by traditional taxi drivers.And, of course, rivals Uber and Grab Taxi pose fierce competition.